Folding hard-top version of the Superfast is a £293k ticket to a luxury open-air concert of a 789bhp naturally aspirated V12
You know the Ferrari that’s so amazing and quick that they called it the Superfast? Well, this is a bit like that, but with no roof.It’s the 812 GTS and in losing the Superfast tag, as is Ferrari’s way (the F8 Tributo with no roof is called simply the F8 Spider), it gains a folding hard-top that can retract while the car’s travelling at up to 28mph, and about 75kg in weight because of the mechanism and the body stiffening required.What it retains are the elements that make the 812 Superfast what it is. In the front is a 6.5-litre V12 petrol engine with no turbochargers that revs to nearly 9000rpm and, on the way, makes 789bhp (800 round metric horses, which gives it the ‘8’ in its name, with the cylinder count the ‘12’).That drives the rear wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, and if that amount of power through two driven wheels sounds quite hairy, holding the whole thing together is a complex array of electronics that oversees traction and stability control, the actions of a limited-slip differential, and even a ‘Side Slip Control’ that limits the amount of oversteer. Satisfyingly, being a Ferrari, you can turn all of that off, which can make it a hoot on circuit or mean you come a total cropper, as one mug did on a bridge over the Thames in a Superfast quite recently.If you wanted to classify the 812, I think you’d call it a ‘super-GT’ car, with rivals including the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera, perhaps a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, but not too much else. It’s just too powerful and expensive – £293,150 before options, and you’ll be encouraged to tick a few boxes if you come to order a car – for there to be many alternatives.
Source: Autocar
